GAEC benefits from innovative technologies
The Skills Development Fund (SDF) is a five-year project initiated by the Government of Ghana in 2011 with funding from the World Bank ($50 Million) and DANIDA ($10 Million) to help address key skills and technology needs of businesses in the formal and informal sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
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The fund is managed by the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET). SDF has since 2012 awarded over $39 million worth of grants to about 400 businesses, trade associations and training institutions for the upgrading of various skills, acquisition of innovative technology and the development of innovative training modules for industry.
The SDF has introduced this weekly column dedicated to sharing key results and success stories of beneficiaries.
Science, research and information technology are no doubt among the main drivers of any economy and Ghana is no exception. Many of the challenges we currently face, be it in the fields of energy, biochemistry, agriculture and information technology could be curtailed if much attention is paid to science research marketing.
Ghana, however, abounds in a great deal of good scientists who undertake various research studies that could solve most of our prevalent national issues. The most one can talk about is that such research innovations gather dust on laboratory shelves because they are not promoted, marketed to benefit industry or aimed at achieving an academic rather than a business objective.
Businesses do not benefit from the science and technology innovations compelling them to adopt outmoded technologies or import expensive technologies in order to achieve production efficiency. This is responsible for the disconnect between the needs of industry and science, and technology development in Ghana.
In 2010, through a World Bank International Development Association (IDA) facility, the government established the Ghana Skills and
Technology Development Project (GSTDP) with a focus on stimulating demand-driven technology development for industry. The project through its Component 2 launched a Call for Proposals requesting for innovative technology partnerships between science and technology institutions and industry. Specifically, grants were meant to support innovative market-oriented technologies for industry.
Therefore, Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) put together a cogent proposal which sought to make it more responsive to the needs of the Ghanaian private sector, as well as positioning it as a private sector market-driven scientific institution supporting the promotion of the Ghanaian economy.
Prior to the implementation of the project, GAEC’s promotion system mainly recognised one’s ability to publish, excluding the ability to commercialise such innovations for the benefit of the private sector.
GEAC set up a Technology Transfer Marketing Centre (TTMC) and put together strong technology innovations from some of its institutes that would affect viable sectors of the economy and was approved for a US $500,000 grant.
The first of such technology innovations is deploying GAEC’s GAMMA irradiation facility for the benefit of the pharmaceutical sector. Prior to GAEC receiving the grant to revamp this facility, M & J Pharmaceuticals Limited was sending its medical equipment to India for sterilisation, thus making its operations quite costly. Presently, by leveraging its technology which M & J has subscribed to, GAEC has saved M&J and the country foreign exchange which would have otherwise resulted in the service being offered abroad.
The second project was the transfer of GAEC’s Greenhouse technology for the production of export-oriented chilli pepper by the Vegetable Association of Ghana.
In order for the association to improve chilli pepper productivity and adapt efficient ways of improving chilli varieties to meet the demands of the export market, they approached GAEC’s Bio-technology and Nuclear Agricultural Research Institute (BNARI) to assist them to build the capacity of 110 farmers in nursery farm, provide seed bank, educate them on good agronomic practices in chilli pepper cultivation and harvesting and post-harvest handling.
As a result of the technology transfer, GAEC also extended its Tissue Culture Technology for yam variety improvement to the Kintampo Yam Farmers Association which faced challenges in being competitive.
Tissue culture is a process that involves exposing plant tissue to a specific regimen of nutrients, hormones and light under sterile, in vitro conditions to produce many new plants, each a clone of the original mother plant over a relatively shorter time.
This process affords the plants disease-free growth, more fibrous, healthier root system, a bushier branching habit and much higher survival rate.
Finally, the Ghana National Association of Garages (GNAG) and other local players in the welding industry lack the skills and competence to bid for big jobs because they are unable to deliver quality standard jobs.
For instance welders were brought in from the Philippines to work at the Aboadze Thermal Plant and also welders brought in from India for welding jobs at the Tema Oil Refinery because of the inadequacies in local welders.
In view of such developments, GNAG approached GAEC which developed a Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technology for the benefit of local welders and oil and gas tank regulatory enforcement to transfer skills in NDT technology to its over 200,000 welders nationwide.
Mrs Sheila Frimpong, Project Coordinator and Marketing Manager of TTMC, pointed out with all conviction that the grant has tremendously helped transform the commission and was already attracting international recognition, which hitherto did not exist.
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The commission’s mechanical workshop alone has seen a sales increase of 21 per cent since they undertook GSTDP funded training for the personnel and the Gamma Radiation Facility (GRF) has also increased profit by three per cent thus far with a projected increase of 40 per cent this year with the implementation of the TTMC’s marketing strategies.